Guitar Interactive Magazine Issue 12 Featuring Steve Vai! iGuitar Magazine!
Steve Vai talks with Guitar Interactive Magazine at his home studio in L.A to talk about playing, his gear & his brand new album.
Learn how to play like Steve Vai in Guitar Interactive Magazine Issue 12 free guitar lessons to learn Steve Vai style and tricks with Andy James. Featured exclusively in this issue we were loaned the Steve Vai Ibanez EVO - only 100 were made as exact replicas & we have one to talk about in this issue.
Win a Steve Vai Gem EVOs in our Free Entry Competition -
Also featured in Guitar Interactive this Issue - We featured the band The Aristrocrats - headed by the fantastic Guthrie Govan check out the live performances of this super group!!
To celebrate Marshall Amplification 50 Years - we interview Paul Marshall about the companies history & we talk with the man behind the designs of Marshall amps with an exclusive tour around the factory.
Guitar Reviews this month feature;
Review of the Ibanez Jem Evo & JEM 70V
Review of the Duesenburg Fullerton CC
Review of the Fender Excelsior combo
Review of the Godin Session Custom Guitar
Review of the Cornell Valve Pre Amp Pedal
Review of the Hayden HGT A20 Head Review 2 x12 Cab review
IK Multimedia iRig Stomp review
TC Electronic Spark Booster Review
A/DA APP-1 Pre Amp Pedal
Rocktron Boutique Series FX Pedals Review
Faith Eclipse Venus 12 String Review
Review Marshall as50d Soloist
Huss And Dalton acoustic review
Review of the Laney NEXUS Fet & NX410 & NX115
Review of the overwater Tanglewood Standard Bass and plus bass
Review of Elixir Coated & Coated Nickel sbass strings

REVIEWS_PEDAL REVIEW

A ‘Spark Booster’? Doesn’t that belong under the bonnet of a vintage Bentley?
Maybe it does, but Rick Graham reckons TC Electronic’s latest pedal might very
well be worthy of pride of place on your pedal board too.

The Spark Booster is the fourth and final
pedal in TC Electronic’s compact series,
which showcases the company’s specific
approach to drive, distortion and boost
pedals. Following hot on the heels of the
previous three of their hugely successful
effects (the Dark Matter Distortion, the
more modern voiced Röttweiler Distortion
and the MojoMojo Overdrive) the Spark
Booster is a boost pedal with a difference.
Well, lots of differences in actual fact!

The first noticable thing about this pedal is
that there are more than two knobs on it.
More often than not, most boost pedals on the
market have just one ‘level’ control and if you’re
lucky, it may have two. The Spark Booster is a
much more feature rich boost pedal than most,
offering a Gain and Level control and active
Bass and Treble controls. The Gain control
blends a very subtle overdrive to the signal
which adds more ‘grit’ giving you access to
those kind of sounds only accessible when your
amp is being driven hard. The Level control
enables and additional 26dB which is more
than enough for the moments when you really
need to be heard above everything else.

STAR RATING CHECK THE SPEC

96 Guitar Interactive Magazine Issue 12

The active Bass and Treble controls really give
you the opportunity to zone-in and boost or
cut those frequencies so that you can sculpt
your sound even further. As if this already
wasn’t enough, there is also the very welcome
addition of a voicing switch offering clean,
fat and mid boost settings, which enables you
to emphasise different parts of the frequency
spectrum according to taste. Couple all of
this with its high build quality and true
bypass capability and you have a formidable
boost pedal!

Starting with the amp’s clean channel with
the voicing switch on the Spark Booster set
to clean mode and all controls set to the 12
o’ clock position, the boost really allowed
our test valve/tube amp to open up more,
giving the signal a much more dynamic
sound. Pushing the gain control added a
beautifully smooth and subtle level of grit
and compression to the signal. With the Fat
voicing switch engaged, the tone had much
more body to it and the increase in the
amount of gain available with this voicing
allows for some great overdriven rhythm and
lead tones.

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